Bush Says `Raise Bar' on Vocational Training; Kerry Says New Jobs Pay Less

Bloomberg.com ^ | 4/6/04 | Bloomberg.com

[NYC Republican]

President George W. Bush said schools must improve math and vocational training to prepare Americans for jobs in a changing economy, seeking to defuse Democratic rival John Kerry's comments that work being created pays less than jobs that vanished during Bush's presidency.

[NYC Republican]

In Ketchup Boy's world, Up is Down, Night is Day, Good is... What a disgrace...

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
37	Wyoming	100.00	3	33.33			30.00	1

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[sandbar]

Aaahh, I see. So according to Mr. Kerry, the government is not only responsible for providing you with a job, but they will also provide you with a better paying one!

Wow!

Now let's see how that works out when you actually get your paycheck and an extra 15% is wacked off before you even get to spend it. Kerry is definitely the nominee for the morons of this country. If you just TELL them they are making more, they won't actually do the math.

[NYC Republican]

Exactly... Besides, how does Lerch know how much these jobs are paying, and what is he comparing the pay to? More shrill lies.

[ClearCase_guy]

Kerry, a 60-year-old four-term Massachusetts senator, has said jobs being created don't pay as well as manufacturing jobs that have been lost.

I admire Kerry's detailed policy plan on how he will create so many new jobs and ensure that they are all well-paying. Now that he has spelled out all the details for how to do this, we're halfway there!

Halfway to nowhere.

[So Cal Rocket]

Lie #1: New jobs are paying less

Area	Occupation	Level	DataSource	Year	Period	Hourly Rate
All United States	All occupations	Overall	Published	1997	Sep	$15.09
All United States	All occupations	Overall	Published	1998	Dec	$15.72
All United States	All occupations	Overall	Published	1999	Sep	$15.36
All United States	All occupations	Overall	Published	2000	Jul	$15.80
All United States	All occupations	Overall	Published	2001	Jan	$16.23
All United States	All occupations	Overall	Published	2002	Jul	$17.18

Data from BLS.

[edsheppa]

What a disgrace...

What is truly disgraceful is the small but very vocal minority of posters here who agree completely with Kerry.

[Betis70]

Adjusted for inflation? Not sure how much of a difference it might make, but I know I wasn't paying 2.25 a gallon in 1997.

[My2Cents]

In KetchupBoy's world, getting ahead is best done by dumping your multi-millionaire wife for someone even richer.

[uncitizen]

John Kerry's comments that work being created pays less than jobs that vanished during Bush's presidency.

No...the newly created jobs pay what the market will bear which is more than can be said for union jobs.

[Elric@Melnibone]

Go back and check out the employment reports for the last year instead of quoting figures nearly 2 years old:

"847k service jobs in the last year. Remember though, average weekly hours in service-producing industries are down from 32.4 in March of last year to 32.1 in March of this year. (Quoted from Dan Denning at The Daily Reckoning.)

He continues:

Average hourly earnings in retail trade for March 2004 were $11.99 - DOWN from February by .05 cents and UP only 0.75% from March 2003.

Average weekly earnings in retail trade for March 2004 were $364.50 - DOWN 1% from February of 2004 and UP just .09% from March 2003.

Bottom Line: More service jobs, fewer hours worked, anemic if not falling hourly and weekly income levels for those service jobs.

And this is GOOD news?

In short: we're losing good paying manufacturing jobs and replacing them with low paying, part time service jobs.

It's not government's function to provide you a job but tell me again how things are getting better.

[techwench]

p.s. for those who have recently become unemployed, DO NOT re-train for occupations listed under "services" at this website:

http://www.outsource2india.com

[cajungirl]

Kerry wants entry level workers to get higher salaries? Maybe this could help some of us who are in the middle. We could start over and make more money. The guy is turning pandering into a sport. He is the panderer of all panderers. Who is this to appeal to? The low level, uneducated, unemployed, pretty much worthless street person with delusions of making it big.